You are going to heaven when you die. But not all of you are. In fact, probably only 18% of you to be precise. This may sound rather mean-spirited, but it is at least more generous than the 144,000 predicted by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

According to a report in The Daily Express, 18% was the number of people who reported having a Near Death Experience after having been resuscitated after cardiac arrest. This is curious because if NDEs were a purely biological phenomenon, surely all the people sampled (i.e. who had been resuscitated after cardiac arrest) would have experienced one?

However, before you all start converting (back) to Christianity, the available data does not necessarily support any particular religion. NDEs have been reported by those of diverse or no faith, including at least one lifelong atheist (who admittedly became religious thereafter). For those that purportedly do not believe in the afterlife, the form of these NDEs nevertheless conform to cultural expectations.

Or so it is alleged. As a metaphysician I wonder if it is not more complex than this. Is it not more likely that in the legendary past, people had experienced NDEs and used these to inform their belief in the after-life? Instead of the latter informing the former?